The Brooklyn Record points us to an article in the Brooklyn Downtown Star reporting there may be some hiccups in getting this whole Music Hall of Williamsburg thing off the ground: more ›

• On the Gothamist Newsmap today: A naked EDP on East 14th Street in Manhattan, a van into a building on Cromwell Avenue in Staten Island, and an illegal factory in Brooklyn
• Stupid China! A stock sell-off in the most populous country caused the Dow to drop 416 points
• The Brooklyn Record looks at Con Ed's green power option

Untitled, by Lara Wechsler on Park Slope Street Photography. more ›

You may recall the story of Brooklyn's Kent Avenue Orthodox synagogue-- it was built last month in only two weeks, at a cost of more than two million dollars. The city authorities slapped a stop-work order on the site after a worker was injured, but the Satmars ignored it, and finished the build on their own timeline. The papers said that the interior was going to take another month to finish, but if you look at the video above, the synagogue seems to already be in full use, and packed to the rafters with followers of Aaron Teitelbaum. The Brooklyn Record opines: more ›

That putrid smell coming from Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park? It might just be the Amorphophallus titanum blooming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The titan arum, aka the "corpse flower," is one of the world's largest flowers, and the BBG has been carefully cultivating its own for the past ten years. The plant, named "Baby," is set to bloom sometime this week - it seems that the flowery part (the "spathe") will unfurl for two days. more ›

- And tomorrow is a big day: There's the Mermaid Parade tomorrow afternoon and the Gothamist-A Hamburger Today Burger Party at Water Taxi Beach in the evening! more ›